GDP to remain comprehensive measure of economy: Govt

Govt recently introduced a new series of national accounts with 2011-12 as the new base year and also began giving growth rate figures in terms of GVA as per the international practice

The Gross Domestic Product will remain a comprehensive measure to capture changes in the economic activity and it will not be replaced by Gross Value Addition (GVA), Parliament was informed today.

The government recently introduced a new series of national accounts with 2011-12 as the new base year and also began giving growth rate figures in terms of GVA as per the international practice.

The GDP includes GVA plus taxes on products, including import duty and excluding subsides on the products.

To a Lok Sabha question on whether the government proposes to replace GDP measures with that of GVA, the Statistics Minister V K Singh replied in negative.

"No. GDP is a comprehensive measure of production activity in the economy, and therefore cannot be replaced by GVA," he said.

According to national accounts data released by the Central Statistics Office last month, India's GDP growth was 6.9% in the fiscal 2013-14, whereas the GVA growth stood at 6.6%.

Elaborating further the minster said, "GVA of an enterprise is measured as the value of the output minus the value of goods and services used to produce output.

"On the other hand, GDP combines in a single figure all the production carried out by enterprises, government and households in the country. GDP can thus be said to be equal to the sum of GVA of all enterprises, government and households.